Gay Couple: We Were Kicked Off CTA Bus For Kissing
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man says a CTA bus driver kicked him and his boyfriend off a bus for kissing, and they are considering filing a lawsuit.
Christopher Buchanan, 22, and his boyfriend, Derrell Hughes, told the Windy City Times they had just left an afternoon program at the Broadway Youth Center, 3719 N. Broadway, and were heading south from East Lakeview on the No. 146 Inner Drive-Michigan Express bus.
They were holding hands and kissing on the bus, Buchanan told the newspaper.
Buchanan said as the bus approached the downtown area, a middle-aged white woman complained to the bus driver about him and his boyfriend, and the driver got up and ordered them off the bus, the Windy City Times reported.
The couple refused to get off the bus, so the bus driver called police, Buchanan told the paper. Responding officers said the men had not done anything illegal, but the couple ended up getting off the bus anyway after a two-hour ordeal.
Buchanan told the newspaper he thought he and Hughes were targeted because they are gay African-American men who were kissing in public. He said a straight couple was kissing on the bus at the very same time, and no one complained about them.
Buchanan and Hughes are considering filing complaints, and are being represented by attorney Jacob Meister of the Civil Rights Agenda, the Windy City Times reported.
The Chicago Transit Authority says it is looking into the matter, the paper said.
